


Just a Little Unsteady (Hold On to Me)

by WishMoon (A_Wish_On_the_Moon)



Series: SofA Lite Exchange 2020 Gifts [1]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: #YOLO, (Kaito's Ace or Bi; Neither He or I or Sure of That), Angst with a Happy Ending, Aoko's Also Bi, Coming of Age, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Getting Together, I am so sorry about this, Implied AoRan and AoShin Crushes, M/M, Multi, Not Tagging the Spoilers, Pandora Drama, Platonic Relationships, Romantic Friendship, The AkaKai is a Bit Blatant, i tried and failed: the rushed edition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28078095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Wish_On_the_Moon/pseuds/WishMoon
Summary: Kuroba Kaito carries the cape like a dogma, like a brand, and leaps headfirst into danger, heedless of the cost to himself. The people in his life kiss him warm, desperate, as they beg him to cease racing into a premature demise, but... everything he does is for the sake of the dead, and everything he yearns for no longer exists. In the end, he cannot let go of that love.(And, in the end, maybe he doesn’t really want to, either.)
Relationships: Koizumi Akako/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid, Koizumi Akako/Nakamori Aoko, Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan & Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid, Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid
Series: SofA Lite Exchange 2020 Gifts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085768
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33
Collections: SofA Lite





	Just a Little Unsteady (Hold On to Me)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [classic_phan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/classic_phan/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [classic_phan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/classic_phan/pseuds/classic_phan) in the [sofa2020lite](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sofa2020lite) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> DO NOT PUT rape, death, major injuries, sad endings
> 
> Please go crazy with length, I love to read long fics but short ones will do be comfortable with whatever you want to write uwu 
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/users/classic_phan 
> 
> http://twitter.com/classic_phan

⭑⁕⭑

“Shouldn’t little kids stay at home?” a boy murmurs pointedly under his breath, and it’s all Shin’ichi can do to grit his teeth in the presence of so many cameras and sharp-eyed adults.

“Shouldn’t stupid thieves stick to their _own_ heists?” he retorts right back with a sharp kick, glaring at the idiot sharing his face and looking far too nonchalant over the fact that he’s handcuffed and tied to a chair in a building full of law enforcement personnel.

Kaito winces at the sudden jolt, then pouts. “Well, this kaitou _was_ minding his own business, but a certain chibi detective thought it would be funny to drag the poor thief into his business.” Tilting his head back to where said chibi detective is also tied to a rusty chair, he adds, “Which, by the way, what happened, Tantei-kun? Last I heard, you were much… _taller_.”

A huff. “Ba’arou. This is just a temporary poison.”

“Hm?”

“Conan is more useful than Shin’ichi,” he grumbles, “And Americans are _really_ too untrusting for their own good.”

The thief cackles. “The Meitantei really is useless, then, huh?”

Shin’ichi’s response, after slipping his hands free from the loose manacles, is a good yank backwards, and a super-powered kick to the guy’s face.

⭑⁕⭑

After everything that went down in Quantico — “You may not have been involved in the murder, but I still think you’re the one behind those stolen files,” Shin’ichi warns before they split, much to KID’s offense — he hadn’t really expected to run into the thief quite so soon. FBI agents aside, Shin’ichi had expected KID to have at least _some_ self-preservation instincts.

Yet, lo and behold, never let it be said that Shin’ichi hadn’t at least _tried_ to give him the benefit of the doubt. But, Haibara wouldn’t tell him what that strange man with the messy hair had wanted, and he’s not quite _short_ enough to convince her through pleading and (mostly halfhearted) promises alone, and, well, when is KID _not_ suspicious?

Still, to pop into Ekoda’s police department without a care in the world… KID sure likes to live dangerously. That he makes a spectacle of himself just outside Nakamouri-keibu’s door — and, wait, was that a _mop_ he was dodging while egging on that other girl? 

It’s with these misgivings in mind and his own speculations running rampant that Shin’ichi doesn’t _quite_ notice the woman that huffs as she stomps by, nor when she stops suddenly to peer up at him, curious. 

Or, at least, not before she’s already accosted him with a bright and cheerful, “Hello!” in greeting.

He jerks back in surprise, then arches an eyebrow when he recognizes… _Ran_?!

“Aoko noticed you talking to Tou-san, earlier. Are you another detective, like Hakuba-kun?”

“Ah, yes. Shin’ichi Kudou, High School Detective,” he introduces. 

The girl, Aoko, beams. The investigator’s daughter, was it? “By the way, Nakamori-san, there’s been rumors of some thefts going around, and I was wondering….”

Well, it can’t hurt to get as much information as possible, even _if_ these thefts were tied to a series of murders, right? Besides, Shin’ichi thinks, as his eyes track the face-stealing bastard out the department’s door, he’s certain KID’ll reveal himself soon.

⭑⁕⭑

“... I feel like we were already in this situation, a month ago,” Shin’ichi deadpans, and digs his nails, hard, into the thief’s white gloves when all the kaitou does is chuckle. With his legs, arms, and wrists tied up in knots, as it were, it’s all Shin’ichi _can_ do, until he can find something sharp to cut the rope with.

“Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t reveal the ruse at the police department,” KID snarks back, subconsciously sweating bullets at the reminder. Now, _that_ would have been disastrous, especially with Kaito’s own face on display and Ahouko fresh on the trail of yet another suspicion.

Shin’ichi groans. “I should have, you damn thief. I definitely, definitely should have.”

“Hmm… Next time, can you not get poor kaitous involved in your murder cases? Serial killers are bad for their complexion, you know?”

“ _Next_ time, I’m going to cuff you as soon as I see you wearing my face again. I can’t _believe_ no one in the department _realized_ ! _Unless_...”

Kaito starts sweating at the tone when Shin’ichi twists around to study him. 

“You haven’t used that disguise _before_ , right?”

A wary chuckle slips past his lips when, this time, _Kaito_ ’s the one to get out of his binds first. “A good kaitou never reveals his tricks,” he bullshits, instead, while deftly untying the detective’s knots with his remaining hand.

⭑⁕⭑

(Pointedly, Kaito _does not_ bother to correct him. He doesn’t need another Hakuba on his hands, after all.)

⭑⁕⭑

The thing is, the Meitantei and KID have an understanding, of sorts. The Kaitou helps the Detective, who helps the bystanders and victims, and, sometimes, Shin’ichi decides to look the other way. After all, there are worse offenders to catch than mere thieves (and, yes, Kaito would definitely be more disgruntled about that fact if it wasn’t one of the sole reasons that he’s _not_ getting trussed up like a turkey for Christmas dinner every other heist), but…

This is not usually the case for every case that KID pulls.

Midnight strikes upon the hour, as a full moon shines dim light through the gemstones within his grip, but none of them bleed red like Pandora, and none of them are what he’s looking for. 

Days turn into weeks turn into months, turn into years, and Kuroba Kaito becomes more a mask at every turn, as KID dodges bullets and binds lacerations, binds bruises, in the quiet emptiness of a house that is not a home.

When Snake’s men come for him, he laughs madness into the air, and lets that vicious rage for all that he has lost consume his waking thoughts and fuel the adrenaline in his blood. He pokes at Aoko’s buttons and trips over Hakuba’s inconsistencies, and steadily ignores the witch’s stare glaring deep into the back of his neck.

⭑⁕⭑

The magic of an illusion is that no one knows where the lies end and the truth begins.

(In your case, there’s nothing to do for the pit swallowing you whole but to grin and bear it — violence and virtue and the hope buried deep within that despair you call a heart.)

⭑⁕⭑

“You’ll run yourself _ragged_ ,” Koizumi insists, as her fingernails pierce through Kaito’s skin. Her eyes are like red moons, burning fierce and fever-bright in the dying sunset, but all Kaito sees is a desperate girl, reflected.

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he snarks back, instead. The hollow of his gaze is a darker midnight upon the hour than it’s ever been before, but…  it doesn’t matter, it _doesn’t_.

“You can’t — !”

Kaito laughs obnoxiously as he falls back on denial like a dog with its tail between its legs, and slips out of a witch’s grasp with a firm flick of a card. This is not the way the die were cast, and she should know better than to assume he’ll heed her warnings.

(Not now. Maybe not ever.)

He leaves her standing in darkness, a cut upon her palms reopened as the gash upon his wrists bleeds black blood into his gakuran. There’s a lot left unsaid, but it’s better that way, after all.

⭑⁕⭑

( _Kuroba Kaito_ , she hisses out, as her eyes shine with nonexistent tears, _You are more foolish than any man I’ve ever met_.)

⭑⁕⭑

Kaito’s brushing Shiro’s feathers in the backyard when Ahouko decides to drop in. Childhood friend or not, Kaito wishes she’d respect at least _some_ of his privacy.

“So this is where you were, Kaito!” she exclaims, as she shoves her way through the fence and makes herself at home by his side. The other three doves warming up in the sun settle onto her lap and shoulders like they belong there, so maybe Kaito can’t really complain too much about that, either.

Instead, he whines, “Ahouko, you’re ruining Shiro-chan’s 'me time', here!” and is very, very satisfied when said Shiro-chan responds by ruffling her mane and crooning haughtily like the diva she is. “See?” he adds, when Aoko punches him half-heartedly in the shoulder, “Even Shiro-chan agrees!”

A huff. “And here Aoko thought Kaito would like to meet one of Aoko’s friend’s friends, but Aoko guesses not.”

“Friend’s friend?”

Aoko nods, shoving a blue and white lollipop into Kaito’s mouth to keep him quiet as she does.

( _Bakaito looked like he needed one_ , she’d explained, the first time it happened.)

((He really does make her worry too much.))

“Aoko met another detective like Hakuba-kun at Tou-san’s office, a few days ago. He had your face! And his friend Mouri-san is so pretty~!” 

Kaito watches Aoko blush and bring her hands up to cover her cheeks, and wonders if she’s coming down with something. It was the same with Akako, when they first met, too. 

“My face? He must be pretty handsome, then!” He cackles at the thought, already knowing where this is going.

“Kudou-san is a Detective, you _baka_! You haven’t even met him, yet!” Looking away, she mutters, quieter, “But, he is handsome… why are all the pretty people in Beika?”

Kaito pretends not to hear her and, instead, complains just because he can. “If this Kudou’s anything like Hakuba, I don’t even want to meet him. I bet he’s like the KID Killer all _over_ again.”

This time, Aoko really does aim for his gut, and causes all of his doves to flutter away from the _violence_.

(Aoko really _is_ like Nakamori-keibu, and in all the worst and most hilarious ways.) 

Unfortunately, Kaito’s out of practice, and doesn’t dodge as well as he should, but he still grins and bears it when Aoko insists, “When that stupid thief is finally caught, Kaito, you better pay your respects to the one who catches him!”

⭑⁕⭑

Kaito loves Aoko, the way one loves wildflowers in a snowstorm. She is the warm drop of winter’s first snowfall, fresh and beautiful, and untouched by the darkness he’s written into his destiny.

(He’s not allowed to ask for anything more than the friendship she’s given, not with these secrets he hides like masks whenever their paths cross.) 

⭑⁕⭑

“This is the _Antarctic_ !” Shin’ichi groans, when he sees a flash of white in the halls and comes across a phantom thief making off with the super-secret prize. As if that should explain everything (it does), or mean anything at all (which, he _gets_ it, but…).

Kaito is surprised, but only laughs while waving a sealed container in his face. “Those scientists shouldn’t have kept their diamonds so deep underground, then!”

The alarms sound before the detective can do more than try to grab the stolen goods from him, along with the alert of a dead body being found, which, _urrk_!

Shin’ichi gives up with a sigh, before locking eyes and monocle with KID. “You, me,” he indicates with two fingers pointing first at KID, then at himself, “We are going to _talk_ about this.”

Kaito salutes sloppily with a wicked grin, before disappearing into the vents. He’s not going to get caught _that_ easily, after all!

⭑⁕⭑

A little girl with a cute headband makes that promise null and void pretty quickly, however, and Kaito ends up playing the part of witness and bystander, anyways. 

(The things he does for this detective. _Seriously_.)

⭑⁕⭑

KID takes to the international stage like a moth to a flame, juggling high school and Kaito with internships abroad and the contacts who hold even the smallest facets of his father’s memory within their hearts. He helps who he can, and hunts for those he will never bow down to, and tries desperately to maintain the illusion that everything is fine.

Kaitou KID 1412. A phantom thief who amazes and astounds with his magic tricks, Jii-chan by his side, as he feeds the audience what they want to see. The harmless, the helper. The one Tantei-kun still trusts, despite everything.

(The one Hakuba hunts, and Aoko hates, for stealing their father(s) away from them.)

Kuroba Kaito is a flimsy mask that’s falling apart at the seams, but so long as his father’s murderers are ruined, nothing else matters. A beautiful revenge, painted in the blood of Pandora — the kind of happy ending fairytales are made of, the kind of finale that is guaranteed to be as _grand_ as that of Oyaji’s.

… And, then, the first body falls.

⭑⁕⭑

“ _You can’t save everyone_ ,” Hakuba consoles, days after the heist.

( _Maybe you can’t_ , Kaito thinks bitterly, _But you’re not the one who ruined your father’s legacy like this._ )

⭑⁕⭑

Akako corners him behind the school, under the shade of a tree that drips water into puddles around their feet. His bangs stick to his cheeks as the rain hides his own horror, but all he can feel beyond the numbness is the dark, suffocating heat racing pinpricks down his arms and pumping life back into his heart.

“I warned you,” she whispers into his shoulder, glaring death into the wall at his back.

“... I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kaito tries to grin back, but he can’t meet her eyes. His mouth trembles. He can _feel_ his mask breaking.

(So close, yet so far, and everything he’s worked towards is falling apart.)

A touch of magic dances with his luck, as tears trace branches down his face. Impossibility, improbability — he needs to rewrite what went wrong. Fix his mistakes, so this doesn’t happen again.

All he has is his own will, and a duty to the dead he can’t let go of. It _has_ to be enough.

⭑⁕⭑

“You’re getting too reckless, Kuroba-kun. All you’re chasing after is a premature _demise_.”

⭑⁕⭑

The next heist isn’t even a heist, but Kuroba Kaito (pretending to be KID who’s pretending to be Kuroba Kaito) ends up on the wrong side of Tantei-kun’s Syndicate (goodbye, peaceful civilian identity), and has to be “rescued” by Kudou Shin’ichi.

Kaito’s grateful that he doesn’t blame him — “You’re a lot of things, but you’re definitely not a _murderer_.” — but that isn’t to say Kaito doesn’t blame _himself_ for the fallout. Snake got too close, Kaito was too laissez-faire, and now Aoko’s dad’s in the infirmary filling out the paperwork for a dead family.

(There’s a lot Kaito can’t forgive himself for. This is just a new one to add to the list.)

After a particularly close call where a dart whizzes by his eye, Kaito stops pretending to be _just_ Kaito, and lets himself _leap_.

“You’re insane!” Shin’ichi cries out, after KID grabs him by the waist. To be fair to the Meitantei, Kaito didn’t exactly _tell_ him they were jumping off the rooftops to their deaths. Nor, Shin’ichi hisses at him from between clenched teeth when they’ve landed safely, told him about the _grappling gun_ , either.

“It’s hard to hide a cape in such a small disguise,” Kaito lies, blatantly, while trying to loosen the stranglehold Shin’ichi has on his shirt collar. For someone so skinny, the guy sure can grapple.

“That’s not the _point_ , and you know it!” 

“Hey, hey, this poor kaitou was just minding his own business.” Kaito doesn’t mention that he’d been tracking Snake at the scene of the crime where the family had been killed for his incompetence. “Besides, aren’t these _your_ guys?”

⭑⁕⭑

“I know you’re all kinds of crazy, but you need to slow down sometimes, you know?”

(KID doesn’t remind him of Conan; pot calling the kettle black, and they know each other too well to pretend.)

⭑⁕⭑

It isn’t quite the amiable anonymity of before, but this is how it begins: 

Shin’ichi hunts. Kaito protects. They both refuse to let others get hurt, as the remnants of those they let get away come back to haunt them. 

They laugh, they snark. They quip back-and-forth as Kaito lies-lies-lies, and doesn’t let Shin’ichi know how far the phantom thief has fallen. They (he) kills, and they (he) make certain that no one knows it was them (him).

Aoko worries, as she feeds his doves and peers up at him with too-curious eyes — “Ruru-kun and Sumiko-chan wouldn’t stop cooing until you finally went to sleep, Bakaito.” His mother calls twice in a blue moon to make sure he is well, minutes after he’s dipped into Oyaji’s offshore accounts for another international escapade (Austria is nice this time of year, and a friend of a friend of a friend of his dad had needed a favor).

Hakuba doesn’t chase him quite as hard as he used to, and Kaito’s too busy showing off for Shin’ichi to even _consider_ the danger this places KID in. And, even though Kaito feels more like a mask than KID ever did, things are… they’re not perfect, but. They’re getting better.

⭑⁕⭑

“What are you looking for, anyhow?” Shin’ichi asks him, after another night of reconnaissance (naughty, naughty, Shin-chan, do we _really_ need to see if that man is cheating on his wife at the embassy?).

KID just brings a finger to his lips and chuckles. “Careful, Tantei-kun; the Animal Farm isn’t as logical as Conan was.”

⭑⁕⭑

It’s just Kaito’s luck that he finally finds what he’s looking for in Paris, over ten thousand feet in the air. There’s some kind of irony, somewhere, that the place where his parents met is the same place their son returns to, years after the fact, but Kaito’s a bit more nonplussed over the rest of the situation.

“Why are you looking for Pandora’s tears?” asks Koizumi Akako, also over ten thousand feet in the air — Kaito _wishes_ this was Jii-chan’s helicopter — and surrounded on all sides by three burly men in black who seem more interested in killing her than kidnapping her (which is what seems to be _happening_ , right now).

Perspiration beads atop KID’s brow, his eyes darting between the intruders and the very lady he apparently is holding this heist for. “Better question,” Kaito offers, a hand clenched tight over the wound in his stomach. “Why are you not even a _little_ bit surprised by all of this, _Ojou-san_?”

Akako tsks in distaste, snapping her fingers in time with a flare of scarlet. 

Kaito yelps, then hisses at the jarring pain, when, just as suddenly as the men appeared, they’re writhing in a labyrinth of golden serpents, their weapons useless and their faces pale. Skin starts to melt as they gasp for air, a fire burning at their feet and crawling ever upwards, but neither Kaito or Akako pay them any heed.

“Pandora locked away hope when she released despair,” the witch states, walking closer to KID, each word punctuated by the clack of her heels on the helicopter’s metal floor. “Why,” she reiterates, grabbing his red, red tie and yanking his face closer, lower, “Are you looking for her, Kuroba-kun?”

Kaito gulps, backing away, but his face is serious when he explains, “Oyaji died because others wanted Pandora found.” His eyes glint steel. “I refuse to let _them_ ever have it.”

⭑⁕⭑

“What would you do, if she was within your grasp?”

(“What do you do with immortality? You _destroy_ it; people weren’t meant to live that long, anyhow.”)

⭑⁕⭑

“Then,” she breathes out a sigh, a hand caressing his jaw as she pulls him closer, “I will hold you to that vow.”

Kaito knocks his head against the wall as Koizumi Akako’s lips connect with his, teeth clacking and cheeks damp, as the thrum of something terrible and ancient settles from her blood onto his tongue. A kiss for closure, a kiss for an end. 

( _This needs to stop_. Whose words were those, anyhow?)

“Don’t die,” she begs, as cold tears trace her eyes and clink onto the ground. Kaito brings a hand up to his face, blushing dark. Akako catches the falling sorrow into her palms, and crushes them betwixt her hold into a crystal shard.

(The beginning of hope, trapped such that not even despair can reach it.)

“Why…?”

A smirk. “You really are an idiot, KID,” she laughs. Her eyes glow with the scarlet stone she pushes into his gloved hands, but all Kaito can feel are the tears slipping through his fingers as he stares at her lips, confused. 

“This,” she mouths, “Is goodbye.”

⭑⁕⭑

“Please don’t waste it.”

(“... After all, don’t you have a detective to save?”)

⭑⁕⭑

Kaito barely has time to react before she’s pushing him out the door, and it’s all Kaito can do not to scramble for a foothold. 

(Akako, Aoko, Oyaji… all for nothing, all for everything. What good is hope supposed to be, if it’s someone else sacrificing their happiness for his sake?)

But, still. Freefalling down-down-down, all KID sees when he looks up is the spark of relief in a witch’s smile, as starlight scatters under blue moon skies. Did it really hurt that much, Kaito wonders, wanting something she couldn’t have? Couldn’t _save_?

(Kaito thinks of Aoko. Yes, KID understands, it _does_.)

⭑⁕⭑

… Slow down, was it? 

(It might be too late for KID, but at least Kaito can try to get things right.)

⭑⁕⭑

“Marry me?” KID laughs, Pandora and Detective in hand, as the wind rushes through his hair and cuts into his cheeks. His white cape flaps and billows around them, and Shin’ichi’s kind of more focused on the fact that they’re falling-falling- _falling_ with nothing to carry them down to safety than he is over the most unassuming and unsatisfying proposal in the world, but, _still_ , he can’t help the blush that rises to his cheeks, nor his own startled surprise at the question.

“You really _do_ have the worst timing,” he complains, deadpan, as his fingers dig crescent moons into KID’s arms. “I don’t even know who you freaking _are_!”

Which… is quite funny, isn’t it? Kaito can’t really help it. He breaks out in a hearty laugh, because only in his life could this kind of thing happen. Then, before Shin’ichi can complain too much, KID takes off the monocle and looks close into Shin’ichi’s eyes, because is he _certain_? 

Shin’ichi just looks at him. Blinks, then groans, because _of course_ KID used _himself_ as a disguise. “I can’t believe you, _oh my god_.”

But… he’s relieved, all the same.

⭑⁕⭑

Kuroba Kaito carries the cape like a dogma, like a brand, and leaps headfirst into danger, heedless of the cost to himself.

(The people in his life kiss him warm, desperate, but… all he’s ever really needed was the promise of a future.)

⭑⁕⭑

When all is said and done, KID may not be _quite_ what Shin’ichi expected. Then, again, Shin’ichi isn’t what Kaito had in mind when he’d finally honored his father’s legacy, and put the cape behind him. 

“ _Idiot_ ,” Shin’ichi mutters fondly, hugging KID close around the shoulders as they glide away. A kiss to the forehead, and eyes that shine with unshed tears, as Kaito finally lets the pieces of a mask he’s been carrying for far too long crack and peel away.

“You finally slowed down, huh?”

“... Guess so.” He pauses, before remembering, “Does this mean — ?”

Shin’ichi just rolls his eyes and lightly punches Kaito on the shoulder. “Shut up; you’re ruining the moment.”

Kaito frowns. That’s not even an answer! “But —!”

“If I say yes,” Shin’ichi warns, “You better bring me a real ring. In-person. As _yourself_ . I don’t need the rumors from Beika City’s police department starting up again. They’re _still_ not over _Ran_!”

“Yeah okay, that’s fair,” Kaito agrees, already making plans for the date. “I’ll drop you off by the Mouri's?”

Shin’ichi sighs wearily. “If you’re any later than 3:00 in the afternoon, I’m going to _actually_ arrest you, this time.”

“So mean!”

⭑⁕⭑

From atop an old clocktower, a scarlet witch breathes blessings into the night. A clock strikes twelve. A cold wind howls.

Somewhere, a fate is shifted.

(Somewhere, a boy learns: it is okay, to breathe.)

⭑⁕⭑

**Author's Note:**

> I know you said no angst but, in my defense, this is the first thing that popped into my head. :D
> 
> I threw in a mesh of pairings to lead up to the finale (apologies if they're not your cup of tea). The concept involved a lot of fluff, angst, humor, and drama, and Kaito's descent before he pulls himself out with the help of others.
> 
> Some parts were a bit rushed (particularly the helicopter scene that started everything, XD). I ran out of time (remind me to never again do 5 prompts at once), but I might revisit or revamp this, in the future.
> 
> For now, hope you enjoy, and that the ending was happy enough!


End file.
